Ack. I hope your husband feels better soon, Kate, and that you don’t catch it. I never did both times my boyfriend had it (we slept in separate rooms both times).

Last night I got three more meds prescribed and a referral to a specialist who will have the tool needed to look at my inner ears. Both ear drums are still filled with fluid and the right ear is, I guess, quite bad, which is why I’m having still having some odd symptoms.

We have tried Hello Fresh and Gobble. I like both, but think it’s a bit pricey for what it is. We keep all the recipe cards. I like cooking, generally don’t mind/even kind of enjoy grocery shopping. We just… never have a plan for some reason. So we’ll go to the grocery store and buy the foods we know we like, then figure it out later. I think our situation is an easy fix of making the effort to communicate about dinners for the week before we go shopping. And three years of living together in, I still haven’t quite nailed the math of how long leftovers will last for two. I also like dinner leftovers for lunch when I go to the office, so trying to factor that into the plan, too.

Oh no! Hopefully it stays mild and you both recover swiftly. I do know people who have gotten sick pretty soon after getting their boosters, so you never know. It’s definitely prevalent here right now, I’ve been masking up more again and notice others doing the same.

Hope all who are feeling under the weather get well soon. FWIW my dad and brother got the booster, I think the XBB, and they both still got COVID, my brother in December and my dad just now. It was both their first time. I’m hoping the vaccines helped a bit. I also got a cough/cold this past week. An expired COVID test said I was negative.

My family has recommended using a neti pot or saline rinse. I just started last night. Not sure if I have the benefits yet but people like it.

We don’t meal plan. I’m not sure if I could do a plan for all days of the week. I’d like to get some more meals in the freezer for rotation. I totally agree about accounting for leftovers, copa!

Generally we shop what’s on sale in the flyer and that kind of dictates what we make, particularly vegetables. In the summer we’d go to the farmers market and get inspired by what’s there. We buy meat on sale and freeze it. On Friday we try to start thawing one meat and we make one meal on Sunday which might last Monday or Tuesday. Wednesday we might do a pasta. By Friday we do chicken fingers or fish sticks in the air fryer. I realize that’s processed but it’s more economical than eating out.

I’d like to incorporate more plant based food in our diet? Like beans. My husband has Crohn’s so fibrous stuff is not awesome but I think if it’s cooked enough it’s ok.

Glad you’re doing better, L, it sounds like you were pretty sick. I feel like it’s affecting me mentally. I had a crying jag today, and I only cry like a couple times a year. And I feel kind of depressed and also can’t focus. My husband and I are both irritable too, like we can’t handle anything.

It sucks because there’s no Covid benefits at work anymore, they took them away a while back, and no one cares, they are like oh that sucks, but they expect you to work through it. My boss is away so I’ve been working directly with her boss, who pinged me and my coworker (who’s out today helping her dad who had triple bypass surgery) asking us to do some budget analysis. Like, come on. It says right there she’s OOO, and you know I’m sick.

The review nobody asked for: First impressions of Typology are very positive. The tinted face serum is lightweight and 3-4 drops evens out my skin tone… I’m probably in between the relative few shades they offer, the one I got feels a touch dark. The concealer feels very moisturizing and blended easily. The tinted lip oil is where it’s at for me atm though. The purple plum color is like my lips but better and as someone who usually opts into Aquaphor, I like the feel of the oil on my lips. Not sure of staying power yet but I’ve been wanting to try this brand for almost a year and so far so good.

My company is good about being flexible with WFH when under the weather. I know people have been sent home as recently as this week for coming in under the weather. But I still face similar issues to pre-COVID. Namely, that work doesn’t stop for illness. I was in rough shape the week after Thanksgiving, but had an end-of-month deadline. So I was allowed/encouraged to WFH, but still had to work.

Good luck with your interview @hfantods! You can take the approach I have to the handful of interviews I had last calendar year: It’s just information seeking for now. You’re in a good spot to see if the fit is right for you since you are gainfully employed. I was hopeful for a job last spring (that I did not end up getting), and honestly I was a bit relieved not to get it… I was uneasy about having to get a car and nearly doubling my commute time when right now I have a door-to-door public transit commute of about 35 minutes.

I’m pretty sure both companies I interviewed with in December are ghosting me. Or still ramping things back up after the holidays. Either way is fine. One felt like a dream company but not the right job. The other felt like the right job but they were candid that the environment is “tough” with lots of micromanaging from the top, and we revisited salary expectations after my panel interview… they can’t even match my salary! Not interested in leaving for a shitty environment for less pay.